‘Something Old’

Seems everyone has a little bit of retro in their weddings nowadays. Maybe its just fashion cycling, but I like to think there is a bit more behind it – I liked including that ‘something old’ because it gave more meaning and connection to such an important day.

I didn’t want a traditional veil, but didn’t want to pay the prices I saw in stores for cute vintage hairpieces. Armed with an idea and a seam ripper, I found my mother’s wedding veil and started to take it apart (with permission of course!).

First, the base of the head piece was completely in tact from when my mother wore it, but just with a little whitening to spruce it up a bit. Then instead of centering the head piece on top of the head as my mother had done in the seventies, my hairdresser helped me pin it so it wrapper around the back and part of the front of my head. With the base in place, I had taken a piece of mom’s veil, which was then pinned exactly where we liked on the day. I can’t say I wasn’t nervous about it all working out, because the wedding day was the first time we had tried to put all of these pieces together, but Christie did everything so perfectly!

And I couldn’t have been happier with another DIY done from the wedding list. It just took a little persistance and help from friends.

Thanks for everything!!

Whimsy in the little things

I feel as though what to do for the centerpieces is a MONDO decision when it comes to big events, like a wedding. A lot of thought (and usually money) is involved – in my case the most I spent on the centerpieces was time.

Going with a rugged theme with a family picnic feel, I really wanted to use pinecones. I had seen a lot of painted pinecones, mostly as Christmas decorations, but with a few changes to colour, they can be used for any season. They have a flower-like look, have playful feel and they are free! I began collecting them off the street and at my university campus – coming home with a backpack or sweater full of them when I had a particularly good find. I was always on the look out.

Many of the large pinecones were scattered and left as-is, but the smaller ones we glue-gunned to shish-kabob sticks (from dollar store) and then painted them a variety of the colours we were using in the wedding. They went in up-cycled tin cans which we had glued some repurposed wall paper testers to the outside. The pinecones were kept company with baby’s breath and azaleas.

Table cloths were various colours of fabric I bought discount then accented with strips of burlap. I read a lot of blogs trying to find a place to get burlap, because it is not cheap at fabric stores. Turns out, most coffee shops who roast their own coffee give away their used burlap coffee bags. Done.

Then just add food!

Scones with clotted cream and jam

Fresh corn on the cob and blue berries

Amazing cake from a high-end grocery store – what a steal!

    

Heart-strings

Outdoor weddings don’t require a lot decoration when the location provides the beauty and atmosphere we could never dream of being able to create ourselves through rustic pines, ocean views and mountains fading in the horizon. For our reception on Bowen Island, BC, we just wanted to add a few special touches to the natural beauty that was already there and of course, it had to be hand-made.

I had seen beautiful mobiles of paper cut into different shapes and sewn together at my favourite store on Granville Island, Paper-ya. I looked at them and I declared, as so many crafters have before me, I could make that! So began hours of cutting out hearts from patterned paper and sewing them together. On thing that saved some time was that I found some antique gold heart foils which were basically all ready to be sewed. That was just one of the kinds of items I found for crafting at this great shop called Urban Source on Main st. They have all sorts of left over industrial bits that can be repurposed or up-cycled.

Inside the clubhouse, the walls were well-rustic, but just needed a little adornment. Dan and I love maps, (who doesn’t?!) and I found a vintage collection of global maps in Salvation Army. I ripped out map after map and folded them into fans, then taped the fans together to form a full circle which could then be hung on the walls. The great part was that the antiquated colours of the maps went perfectly with the kinds of colours we were using throughout the wedding 🙂 Loved it.

Mason jars at work

hand-painted drift wood signage

Here is the follow up post to display the mason jar syrup dispensers from the previous post in all their glory at our wedding reception. We had a little lemonade stand set up out on the deck, complete with painted drift-wood signage.

There were two dispensers; one with plain syrup and the other with flavoured syrup. This one is raspberry (which I bought on sale from Chapters). I heard that this one flavour was popular enough to be stolen and monopolized by one of the tables for some time.

Here is one the drinks fully mixed with our handy-dandy paper straws (also from Chapters – super cheap!). We still have some left over and they are fun to bring out every so often.

We also gave guests the option of iced tea or lemonade. There was a really ugly painted sign underneath the lemonade stand and it is being covered by those lovely crepe streamers we got from dollar store hung on a string. So easy!

More wedding DIY photos to come 🙂